A large online bingo company recently conducted a fairly large survey of people in Britain, to see if they believed in luck. The main finding was that the majority of British people do believe in luck with 69% of the respondents answering in the positive.

There were some interesting regional patterns. An even greater majority of people in Northern Ireland believe in luck, whereas in Scotland, only 29% accept that luck is an element to be acknowledged. In Wales just over 55% said they believed in luck, whereas there were few believers from Yorkshire, the North East, the North West and the Midlands.

I thought I’d ask my Bingo playing chums how they viewed luck. One was totally adamant that there was no such thing as luck. I managed to wear him down by asking why on earth did he play Bingo online, when it was a game of chance, and little or no skill involved? He said it was because he enjoyed the game itself- seeing how close he could get to a winning line, chatting in the chat rooms etc. We worked out that on average he had won more money than he had spent at Bingo. I pushed him and said that that must indicate he had been lucky? He wasn’t having any of it, saying that he was convinced that after a period of time, things would even out. He would eventually have won exactly what he had spent. It was not luck, it was just randomness. I asked him if knew anybody who seemed to have more good fortune or more misfortune than average. He said yes, he knew a mate who seemed to have good things happen to him. So I said, then that bloke he knew must be lucky.  But again my mate wasn’t persuaded, saying that the person had “made his own luck”. But I think I had him, as he had used the word luck! If you made your own luck, then luck must be real, I said. He replied that I had bamboozled him into using the word luck, but he really meant that his friend had “created the conditions where it was more likely than not, that a good outcome or event would occur”.  I let it rest there! I still think, secretly, he believes in luck, but was just taking a steadfast position to be awkward!

Well, dare I say to you... be lucky? !! Even if you are my friend who doesn’t believe in luck, or you come from Yorkshire, the North East, the North West, or the Midlands!